Early Fall Random Bites: The Giving Garden

Vacation is over, the white jeans have been put away, and it's time to get serious and get into fall mode.

No more corn or peaches till next year.

However, my garden is still flourishing!

My rosemary and sage are still thriving, as is the new crop of parsley planted, but my basil is all done.

I have about 20 tomatoes still on the vine, as well as a new bumper crop of beets and kale!

My fall harvest is even better than the summer crop.

My October garden trumps my July garden.

I think it must be the cool nights and the hot sunny days we had in September.
Makes sense.

A new crop of fall broccoli allows me to make these delicious broccoli and salami squares weekly (I take broccoli harvesting very seriously, as you can see).

These are so easy to make.

I use a bunch of steamed baby broccoli, sauteed w/ garlic and 2 anchovies......mix with 6 eggs, 1/4 cup milk, s & p, big handful of shredded mozzarella and cubed salami. Bake for 35 minutes at 375F in a buttered baking dish, then cut into squares when cooled.

This is the garden that keeps on giving........I have a bunch of eggplants to use up.
I guess I will make a batch of ratatouille for the freezer (though eggplant does not freeze well).

I made a big batch of eggplant stacks w/ tomatoes, pesto and mozzarella for lunch this week.
Rosemary had to sub in, because my basil plants have bitten the dust.


Good Idea: (I sound like Martha Stewart)

I had 6 little boiled new potatoes leftover, so I smashed them with my potato masher, leaving the skins on.

The next day, I added a tablespoon of melted butter, 1 egg, 2 tbsp flour, bunch of chopped scallions and salt & pepper.
I fried them up in some olive oil in a non-stick skillet for 2 minutes on each side, and delicious smashed potato pancakes were born.

If you follow me on instagram, you know what's in my husband's lunchbox daily.
Sometimes people see him out and say "Hey Henry! I saw that delicious lunch you ate yesterday. You are one lucky guy!" (true story).

If you have never made Ina's pesto pea chicken salad, why not?

It's leftover chicken breast tossed w/ mayo, basil pesto, peas, s & p.
You can add scallions and all the other fancy stuff if you want, but it's great just on a roll or tossed w/ macaroni.

Yum.


Here are some "Lost Paris Random Bites" that I forgot to show you last week.

This old plane was on the rooftop of the Paris Peninsula Hotel. The view from the ladies room where I sat (I actually squat! TMI).

As soon as we get off the plane and drop off the luggage, we go to the Franprix and buy staples and yogurt.
It's a tradition.

This time I accidentally bought something called "Le Petit Basque Brebis".
We ate it for breakfast and noticed that this was NOT yogurt.

What was it?

We asked our French friends who work at the restaurant across the street and know everything about everything French.
What exactly did we eat?

They explained that Petit Basque is the "first cheese of France". "Unpasteurized, and unstrained, like a ricotta, but not pressed, made from pure sheep's milk, and we love it".

Ok, I am still not sure what it is......but we liked it too.